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Frank Gore would not stop smiling. Even when he recalled using crutches to walk into his first meeting with the 49ers‘ new coaching staff, he couldn’t keep a grin off his face for very long.

At the end of Sunday’s 26-0 rout of the Rams, he and two teammates seized the huge 49ers flags from their usual bearers and waved them furiously in Candlestick’s south end zone.

The players routinely exit the field from this part of the stadium, and for years, it was their gantlet of grief. Too often, they’d hear boos at halftime and leave with slumped shoulders after the final whistle.

So Gore and his teammates did more than stage a celebration Sunday, when the franchise clinched its first division title in nine years. They held a giddy exorcism.

Fellow running back Anthony Dixon has made a habit of taking a flag from the Touchdown Team after every win in this transformative season. Nose tackle Ricky Jean Francois followed his lead Sunday, and then Gore took a flag of his own. Dixon and Francois dutifully returned theirs, but Gore climbed down into the stadium tunnel, still clutching the giant banner, which barely fit under the ceiling.

“How can I be mad?” said Lucas Ortiz, the Touchdown Team member left empty-handed. “How can I be mad at the new all-time rushing leader for the 49ers?”

In their dynasty days, the 49ers saved such displays for Super Bowls or, at the very least, NFC title games. But the current group had to carry the expectations set by that generation, as well as the heavy disappointment of dreadful seasons, sporadically interrupted by false hope.

The end of that abject futility arrived very predictably against the pitiful Rams. The players knew that they would find new caps and T-shirts, the obligatory souvenirs for a division-clincher, in their locker stalls. The experience still seemed fresh and exhilarating.

“That’s what we talked about all week. ‘I want my hat. I want my shirt,’ ” tight end Vernon Davis said. “You see it on TV, but when you actually get there and get it, it’s a different story.”

Francois has been a 49er for three years, but he knew that the team elders, including his defensive-line coach, had endured more tough times. Their elation, he said, went far beyond the usual joy over a victory.

“Coach (Jim) Tomsula, he’s sitting there just looking with a blank stare,” Francois said. “And it was great seeing Mr. York walking around the stadium with a smile on his face. Now, we’ve just got to keep the smile on their faces.”

He could have meant either 49ers Chairman John York or his son Jed, the 49ers’ president. The father seemed like the better bet. He exited the locker room with a slightly dazed smile and one of the division-title caps engulfing his head. Jed York came in there later and held court with reporters, remembering that the last time the 49ers won a division title, he had to watch them on TV in South Bend, Ind. He was a junior at Notre Dame.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh’s job requires him to keep the team level. “It’s kind of a ‘celebrate all wins’ idea,” he said. “Somebody asked earlier what were our plans if we won the division. (We) kind of lean more toward spontaneous celebration. Spontaneity. The guys are excited about it. They’re happy about it. They realize there’s more out there for us. They’re already in there (the locker room) talking about it.”

He was right, to a certain extent. The raucous noise from the locker room immediately after the game had subsided by the time the media entered. Many of the players had their eyes fixed on TVs tuned to the game between the Giants and undefeated Green Bay, the only team with a record better than the 49ers’. After a big reception that set up the Packers’ winning field goal, groans ricocheted through the room.

Several players lingered longer than usual, dressed in suits and ties. Rumor had it that many of the players planned to dine together at San Francisco’s famed House of Prime Rib. They might have had something of a toast or two in mind.

“Sure, the Gatorade and um, you know, apple cider,” a coy Davis said.

In one of the more touching moments, former linebacker Derek Smith, who endured some of the harshest years with the 49ers, came in the locker room to visit after the game. He slapped backs, embraced old friends and had to utter barely a word to explain why he was there. His face said it all.

Davis explained the overall mood best when he tried to describe how he thought Gore felt. “He’s at peace,” Davis said.